Your Turn
by XGaaRaSamaX
Summary: Shikamaru and Temari are playing a game of Shogi and he decides he wants to ask her to dinner. ShikaTema One-shot. Somewhat AU. Characters may be OOC. 1st story! Please r&r! I would love to have feedback.


**A/N: So... this is my first ever story, and I know it won't be the greatest thing you'll ever have laid your eyes on, but please give it a chance? This'll most likely just be a one-shot. Please RR! I'd love to hear any criticisms to help me write better, and I hope you like it!**

 **(This is set in a sort of AU btw) •_•'**

They had practically grown up together, so getting dinner with her shouldn't be THAT hard to ask for... right? Shikamaru thought to himself.

Then he heard it again, some kind of mumbling sound getting progressively louder.

Then it hit him. Figuratively and literally.

"Oy! Helloooo? Earth to Shikamaru?" Temari said annoyingly.

"Hn?" He replied back, opening one eye to look at her.

Temari had leaned over the Shogi board to slap him on the knee for his attention.

"It's your turn idiot." She said nonchalantly.

"Took you long enough... troublesome woman." That last part he muttered under his breath.

They had been doing this a while now, the two of them would play at least one game of shogi whenever Temari would come over from Suna. Of course, Shikamaru would completely destroy her every time, but every time she played, she'd study his strategies, tactics and his tells, slowly accumulating his methods in hopes of one day beating him.

She looked over at him, sitting there as if in deep thought, calculating his next move. He was taking a lot longer than he usually did, and she decided to poke fun at him for taking a long time even for his standards. But as she opened her mouth to say something, he spoke first.

"So uh... when do you leave again?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes still focusing intensely at the board.

"In three days. Why?" Temari asked still looking at Shikamaru concentrating on the game.

'Well, it's now or never.' Shikamaru thought.

"I was uh, wondering... maybe you wanna go get dinner or something before you leave?" He asked, waving his hand around trying to sound nonchalant about it.

She was taken back a bit by his question, taking a few moments to think about what he had just asked her.

'Did he just ask me out on a date?'

After a few moments of silence, he peered up at her, his hand frozen above a game piece.

"Uhh.. sure, did you have someplace specific in mind?"

 _Crap_.

He hadn't thought that far ahead for some reason. He had been focusing too much on _how_ he was gonna ask her to dinner, he hadn't planned any of the details out.

'Nice going idiot, now what're you gonna do?' Shikamaru thought to himself.

"Uhh.." he laughed nervously.

"Nowhere special, Ichiraku maybe?"

 _Smooth_.

"Oh. Alright, that'd be okay I guess." Temari said not sounding too pleased by his choice.

'Okay, maybe it isn't a date..'

There was a few seconds more of silence until Shikamaru finally moved his game piece.

"Your turn." He said, his voice cracked practically enforcing the awkwardness that was now in the air.

She had to giggle at that, which had in turn made her feel slightly more comfortable to what had just happened, so she decided to poke fun at him, but she also wanted to find out what his true motives were in asking her out.

Shikamaru had picked up his cup of tea that had been sitting off to his left, and was about to take a sip.

'This is the perfect opportunity to get him good.'

"So, is this gonna be our first date?" She asked looked across at him, an amused smile on her face as she said it.

He nearly choked when she said that. Taking a few moments to clear his throat, he looked up at her.

He nervously scratched the back of his neck.

"Let's uh, not put a label on it just yet huh? We'll just call it dinner for now, and we'll see by the end of the night." He instantly turned away after that statement as his face was turning red.

Any trace of amusement on Temari's face was now gone.

'Wait, so this has the potential to be a date?... Wait why am I thinking this to myself' She pondered.

"Wait so this has the potential to be a date?" She

asked very curiously.

"Uhh.." he laughed nervously. Alright, he screwed himself over and backed himself into a corner mentally.

"Alright yes, yes it does. Is that a problem?" He asked trying to sound offended as if it was implied.

"Your turn." She briefly mentioned. He had almost completely forgotten that they were playing.

"And... no of course not! Why would that be a problem?" She said trying to sound as equally aggressive as he was.

"It isn't!" He said defensively. "Look, I just wanna be able to go out to dinner with my friend without us having to think about the pressure of it being a date." He then carelessly moved his shogi piece.

"Your turn."

She sighed. He made a good point, if they both thought of it as a date, they'd be pressured to act romantically the whole time instead of their usual hangouts.

"Alright alright. You've made your point. We won't look at it as a date." She said sounding slightly disappointed.

She couldn't deny it, she had indeed developed feelings for the lazy strategist, after all, he was one of the only constants in her life who had always been there for her. He was always quick to reply to her letters whenever her brothers were being irritating, mainly Kankuro, or how it was always hard to keep up with Gaara because he rarely slept leading to almost constantly working and sending her out on missions. Whenever she got the chance to go to Konoha, it was always a breath of fresh air, because spending time with mainly Shikamaru had always calmed her mind and body, even with the occasional argument here and there, which was always in good spirits.. but she had never really been sure if he reciprocated any of her feelings, so she never gave them any second thought.

After a few moments, he spoke again.

"... Do you want it to be a date?" He wondered, realizing he hadn't really considered her opinion on the matter.

She smiled warmly at him, then shook her head, "Nah, that's okay." She said sincerely.

He looked at her apologetically and sighed, "I'm sorry, I'm not usually good at speaking when it comes to matters of the heart."

She looked down in embarrassment as she was now blushing at that last statement. 'He had said matters of the heart'

He sighed, "Look, I really like you Temari. Let's be honest, you knew that, I know that. Hell, both of our respective villages knew that. I-I... I just want to make sure that I do this right, because you mean a lot to me, and I never want to lose you because I did something wrong or stupid." He continued.

She was now looking up at him, not caring that her entire face was now flushed.

"So.. let me rephrase the question. Sabaku no Temari, would you like to go out on a date with me?" He asked with the most serious face she had ever seen on him.

Her heart fluttered and she smiled warmly, "I would love to Shikamaru Nara."

With that said, she stood up from her spot now looking down at him sincerely.

"It's getting late, I should head back to the hotel before it's too dark out."

He moved to get up so he could walk her there, but as he stood up, she bent back down and moved her final shogi piece. She smiled widely at him.

"I win." She said victoriously still smiling ear-to-ear.

He then rolled his eyes, "Troublesome woman." He said making sure she heard him this time.

 **A/N: So... how was that? I know they were waay OOC, but this was just a one-shot that I wanted to get out there, to test the waters in a sense. Thank you so much for reading! I look forward to hear your opinions. I may do a short series with multiple pairings, all set in the same relative "universe", I'm not sure yet, and I'm also not sure if I should just say all the pairings or not, but ehh, we'll see •_•' (that's supposed to be a sweat bead)**


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